Easy Vegan Turkey-less Roast

Oh wow! This roast is just heavenly and the ultimate centrepiece for your Christmas dinner! It’s actually very straightforward to make and is sure to impress friends and family!

Serves: 8-10

Total Time: 90 mins


Ingredients

Wet ingredients for the roast

  • 1 onion, finely diced

  • 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

  • 200ml/scant cup soya milk or other plant milk of your choice

  • 160ml/⅔ cup vegan white wine (use equivalent in plant milk if you want an alcohol-free version)

  • 1 tbsp syrup (eg maple or agave)

  • 1 tbsp dried or fresh sage, finely chopped

  • 1 tbsp dried or fresh rosemary, finely chopped

  • ½ tsp smoked paprika

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 4 tsp vegan stock powder, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water and stirred thoroughly

  • 2-3 tbsp white miso paste

  • 100g/3½ oz firm tofu, drained

  • 60g/⅓ heaped cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed

  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)

  • 2 tsp lemon juice (optional)

  • Pinch freshly ground nutmeg (optional)

Dry ingredients for the roast

  • 285g vital gluten flour

  • 3 tbsp nutritional yeast

  • 70g chickpea/gram flour

Stuffing

  • 130g (approx.) of your favourite dry stuffing mix (make according to the packet but set aside and don’t bake it yet!) OR use 1 batch of our Apricot & Chestnut Stuffing recipe (again don’t complete the baking stage)

Skin

  • 3 large sheets of dried yuba (dried bean curd skin – buy this online or from Asian supermarkets. Make sure you get the spongy bean curd skin and not the hard crispy sheets). This stage is optional


Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan)/350ºF/Gas Mark 4.

Wet ingredients

  1. Fry the onion until soft and golden then add the garlic and fry for a further minute.

  2. Add the garlic and onion to a blender and then add all the other wet ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Dry ingredients 

  1. In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine all of the dry ingredients, mix well.

Assembly/baking

  1. Pour the blended wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and combine with your hands until you have a dough. This is your seitan dough.

  2. On a floured surface, knead the dough for a minimum of 10 minutes.

  3. With your hands, stretch the dough into a rectangle around 1 inch deep.

  4. Fill the middle of the seitan dough with your stuffing, fold up each end of the dough around it and then roll it up lengthways so that it’s fully sealed.

  5. If using yuba skin, run each sheet underneath the tap to rehydrate. Wrap them around the seitan until it’s fully covered and then tie in three different places with baking string (it will look a bit of a soggy mess at this stage but don’t worry it soon crisps up in the oven!).

  6. Wrap a large piece of foil around the seitan roll and twist at both ends to seal tightly, making sure it’s watertight.

  7. Place the seitan, wrapped in the foil, onto a deep baking tray with about half an inch of water. Place in the oven and cook for 45 minutes, turning once halfway through. Add more water to the pan if it’s dried out.

  8. Open the foil and check to see if the roast is golden. If not, put it back in until it’s crisp and golden.

  9. Once the roast is crisp and golden, remove from the oven, take off the foil and transfer into a dry baking tray. Brush with a little oil and put back in the oven for 5-10 minutes.

  10. Serve with roast potatoes and all the trimmings!

TaraMay ByrneComment